Villagers near a peepal tree, uprooted in Wednesday's massive storm, at Cheet village in Agra district on Friday.
After some respite on Thursday and Friday, a fresh set of thunderstorms, accompanied with gusty winds, is likely to hit India’s northwestern plains on Saturday, the Meteoriological department said.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that thunderstorm, accompanied with gusty winds, was "very likely" at isolated places in western parts of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. Saharanpur, Muzzafarnagar, Bijnore, Baghpat and Meerut might be hit by the storm, added the spokesperson of the meteorological department.
Union Home Ministry on Friday issued fresh warning about thunderstorm and squall hitting West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Here are the latest updates:
# Yogi Adityanath visits SN Medical College, Agra, to meet those injured in the dust storm.
# Thunderstorm accompanied with squall are very likely at isolated places over Assam and Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura.
# Isolated places in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Odisha, northwest Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rayalaseema, north coastal Andhra Pradesh, interior Tamil Nadu and Kerala are also very likely to experience thunderstorm along with gusty winds.
# Heavy rains are very likely at isolated places over Tamil Nadu and Kerala, while dust storm and thunderstorm very likely at isolated places over Rajasthan.
# The home ministry has also issued an advisory for Saturday saying thunderstorm accompanied with squall are very likely at isolated places in Uttarakhand, Assam and Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, SubHimalayan West Bengal and Sikkim. Thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds are very likely to occur at isolated places in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and gangetic West Bengal.
# Heavy rains are very likely at isolated places in Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura. Dust storms are very likely at isolated places in Rajasthan, an official said.
# Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the kin of those killed due to dust storm that hit various north Indian states, particularly UP and Rajasthan, on May 2. The Prime Minister also cleared Rs 50,000 each for the seriously injured.
# As many as 124 people lost their lives due to thunderstorm and lightning in five states earlier this week, the home ministry said quoting figures reported by the affected states.
The highest casualties were in UP, where 73 persons were killed and 91 injured. In Rajasthan, 35 persons were killed and 209 injured in the thunderstorm that, as per the state government’s report, also uprooted 12,000 electric poles and damaged 2,500 transformers.
While six persons were killed in Uttarakhand, two lives were lost in Punjab. Another 8 persons died under similar conditions in Telangana.
